Issue: Environmental/Climate Justice

Since 2017, New York Communities for Change (NYCC) has built hard-hitting multi-racial campaigns to win transformative results. In large part, their climate-focused work began in response to the devastation that Superstorm Sandy wrecked on the organization’s membership. NYCC attacks the linked crises of inequality and climate change. In order to win, NYCC combines its base in low-income communities of color with the predominantly white progressives who are active on climate to bring powerful pressure on specific governmental and corporate decision makers for major results. This report describes NYCC campaigns from 2017-2022. Some highest-impact winning campaigns: NYC pension divestment, enacting local law 97, stopping the Williams NESE pipeline, cracking BlackRock, removing Lee Raymond from the JP Morgan Chase board, and stopping new fracked gas power plants, all won alongside allies. NYCC hopes that activists, foundation funders, donors, and leaders take a close look at this kind of organizing and base building work.

We’ve just wrapped up COP28 in Dubai. While there were a lot of great words about the need to decarbonize and reduce emissions (though pointedly not the words “phase-out”), it’s impossible to ignore the context of those grand statements: an international climate treaty conference located in a petrostate, presided over by an oil executive, overrun by fossil fuel lobbyists, and being used as the backdrop for still more oil and gas deals. Despite these structural barriers and some oddly patronizing attempts at pacification, climate advocates have made their voices heard at COP28, rejecting Dubai’s facade of decorum and business-as-usual.
It’s been a few years since we wrote a newsletter summarizing insights on fossil fuel fights* – so as we close out 2023 (and salute the hard-fought wins we’ve achieved this year!) let’s keep an eye on the fossil fuel front and explore some ways to respond.